A Sort of Clone
by DiamondRussia
Summary: The epilogue in the series of shorts about Logan, Marie, a clone, and welcome you get when you come home.


A Kind of Clone

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Epilogue

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Disclaimer: I own nothing.

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"You're back."

Logan winced as he put down their bags on the entryway floor. Rogue was not happy. He should have called, and told all of them about _her_. X-23, or whatever her name was.

Not knowing that he was bringing home a stray would have made Rogue any happier, but at least he would have had a better excuse. Or an excuse in general. Bring home a girl that he picked up in a Canadian bar, before checking to see if she really was a mutant – oh, Storm would have had a field day. Trust Logan to bring home a girl who worked for the Brotherhood or worse.

"Yeah," he muttered as he slowly lifted his face to look at her.

"Who's she?" Rogue asked, jerking her head at the small girl who came around him to stand by his side.

Dark hair, small frame. That damned healing factor, those claws. The Adamantium-coated skeleton. One and the same. Rogue didn't know that, though.

One difference: green eyes. The only thing that's different. Must be her mother's genes, because Logan definitely didn't have green eyes.

Rogue's jaw dropped as she fully saw the familiar figure standing next to the man who, for the moment, she detested.

"Marie?"

X-23 stopped in her tracks of moving past the man and stared at the girl in front of her. Rogue, openmouthed with shock, took a step back, then tucked her head down and ran down the hallway, almost knocking Kitty over as she was coming out of the living room.

Kitty passed the two of them and jerked her head back at the girl next to him. "Is she new?"

Logan nodded. It was easier not to explain how he found her, all bloodied and scared of the men in the bar. It was easier not to accept that they were essentially the same person. It was just… easier.

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Marie paced her room, nervous. She knew who the girl was. She knew Laura, but how did he find her? He'd never seen her face, but he managed to bring home a long-lost friend. How? _How'd he do it?_

She threw herself down on to her bed, the covers rising up and almost enveloping her.

"Mrowe?" A grey cat jumped on to her bed and purred, rubbing its face across Marie's cheek and licking her nose.

"Hullo, dear Mystique," she laughed, scratching the top of the cat's head. "At least you haven't changed…"

"Rogue?" a voice called softly from the doorway into the darkness of the room.

She rolled over, covering her face with the comforter that was located conveniently underneath her.

The reply escaped the layers of blankets, and the Logan heard a muffled "What?" coming from the brunette.

He sighed, closed the door and leaned against the now closed door. Rogue was being unpredictable, as usual, but now was not the time to get all hot and bothered. Now was the time to apologize and ask politely how the hell she knew X-23, because the expression on her face when they arrived home screamed of… recognition.

"How'd you know her?" he said quietly.

She didn't bother rolling over to talk to him – she knew he could hear her through the cocoon that surrounded her, "When I was hitchhiking, a couple rides before I met you, we hopped a ride together. Nice lady, who gave us a ride. Anyway, we just kinda… clicked. She was a runaway, just like me. Didn't talk much about her though, said she was in some sort of program where she didn't have an identity. She was looking for her father, he was supposed to be up in Canada someplace, said that she would know who he was when she met him. Laura, she called herself. I– we rode together for a while, jumping rides together, until one day she just… disappeared."

Rogue sat up and scooted back until she was touching the headboard, and leaned up against it. she gazed at him expectantly, until, finally giving up on the psychic commands – she never quite got the hang of it – patted the place next to her on the bed, mentally asking him to sit down.

Logan walked over and sat at the offered place, reaching over slowly and taking her hand in his. "Marie…" she looked up at that – he called her Marie? Finally? After all this time, all it took was a confession that she was vulnerable again, and he went all emotional, and started to call her Marie again? He was gazing in her eyes, pleading with them, trying to ask her to accept his unspoken apology.

"Yes?" she said finally, in a small voice.

"Darling, she found her father."

She flashed him a look, and cracked a smile. "Good. That girl needs you," she said quietly, and he couldn't help grinning at her deadpan stare that she was giving him.

He grabbed her other hand and pulled her onto his chest, wrapping his arms around her and letting out a satisfied sigh.

"I need you, too, Marie. I can't do everything alone."

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This one took me a while to write, as I completely finished it and hated the story, thus deciding to delete it all and start over. Then, distracted by the wonders of "Sin City," I was distracted again. Add on a day of being sick and still unhappy with the product, I started over again. So this, the final version, is the epilogue of the series, since the ending of the third one wasn't really an ending at all.

A

BTW :: X-23, or Laura Kinney or Howlett, is the clone of Wolverine in the comics. She possesses the same Adamantium skeleton and healing factor, as well as the temper. She's pretty damn cool – look her up on Wikipedia.


End file.
